A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2022
SPORTS
NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Celtics hold off Heat 100-96 in Game 7
BY TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
MIAMI — Not this time.
After being thwarted on the
doorstep of the NBA Finals
three other times in the pre-
vious five seasons, the Boston
Celtics have broken through.
The beasts of the East, again.
And now a chance at an
NBA title awaits.
Eastern Conference finals
MVP Jayson Tatum led the
way with 26 points, Jaylen
Brown and Marcus Smart
each added 24 and the Celtics
beat the Miami Heat 100-96
on Sunday night, May 29, to
earn a berth in the NBA Fi-
nals against the Golden State
Warriors.
“This is amazing,” Smart
said. “We finally got over the
hump.”
It was Boston’s first Game 7
win on another team’s home
floor since topping Milwaukee
for the 1974 NBA title; tech-
nically, the Celtics were the
“road” team when they beat
Toronto in a Game 7 two years
ago at the restart bubble, but
that was at Walt Disney World.
Tatum — wearing a purple-
and-gold armband bearing the
number “24” of Los Angeles
Lakers Hall of Famer Kobe
Bryant, his favorite player
— had lost two East finals in
his young career. Brown and
Smart were part of Boston’s
East finals losses in 2017, 2018
and 2020. And this one was
slipping away, a frantic Miami
run in the final moments cast-
ing what looked like a sure-fire
Celtics win into serious doubt.
But they would hold on.
Jimmy Butler — brilliant
again for Miami — missed
John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel-TNS
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo fights for possession of the ball against Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown during the first half of Game 7 of
the Eastern Conference final playoff game at FTX Arena on Sunday, May 29, 2022 in Miami.
what would have been a go-
ahead 3-pointer with about 17
seconds left, and the Celtics
never trailed.
On to San Francisco.
“To get over the hump with
this group, it means every-
thing,” Tatum said.
Butler, who willed Miami
into Game 7 by scoring 47
points on Friday, May 27, in
Boston, led the Heat with 35
points in what became their
season finale. Bam Adebayo
added 25 for the Heat, who
were down 11 with under 3
minutes to go before trying
one last rally.
A 9-0 run, capped by a
3-pointer from Max Strus
with 51 seconds left, got the
Heat within 98-96. They got
no closer. Boston would not
be denied, and now is 2-0 in
Game 7s in these playoffs after
ousting defending champion
Milwaukee in the East semis.
“It’s just one of those really
tough moments,” Heat coach
Erik Spoelstra said. “You can’t
prepare for it. ... It’s one of the
worst feelings into the world to
address your locker room after
a game like this.”
Kyle Lowry scored 15 for the
Heat. Grant Williams finished
with 11 for the Celtics.
The notion of Boston be-
ing finals bound would have
been considered an unlikely
proposition two or three
months ago.
Ime Udoka’s first season as
coach of the Celtics was not
without immense challenges.
Boston got off to a 2-5 start,
lost to Milwaukee on Christ-
mas Day to fall below .500
and was still saddled with a
losing record as recently as
late January.
Through 50 games, the Celt-
ics were 25-25. No team had
that sort of record through
50 games and made the NBA
Finals since 1981, when the
Houston Rockets started 22-
28 and wound up making the
title series — where they fell
to Boston.
Now the Celtics will look
to do the Rockets one better.
That Rockets team got into
the playoffs at 40-42. This
Celtics team roared to life
down the stretch and is still
roaring.
“Our focus is getting four
more,” Udoka said.
They went 26-6 down the
stretch of the regular season,
and had an uncanny ability to
bounce back. Boston is now
13-1 after losses over the last
four-plus months.
“The road that we took to
get here, not a lot of people
believed in us,” Tatum said.
“We took the toughest route.
It looked out.”
Boston’s lead was 32-17 after
one quarter — the largest ever
by a road team after 12 min-
utes of a Game 7, four points
bigger than Golden State’s lead
over the Los Angeles Lakers
back in the 1977 playoffs.
The tone was set, and the
lead was never relinquished.
Miami ended the half on an
11-2 run, the burst sparked by
3s from Strus and Butler, then
capped by four free throws
from Lowry in the final 29
seconds. Butler was up to 24
points at the break and Miami
had gotten within 55-49 going
into the third.
Miami thought it had gotten
within 56-54 when Strus rat-
tled in a corner 3 early in the
third. But the Celtics answered
with a 9-1 run, which was even
worse — the NBA replay cen-
ter in Secaucus, New Jersey,
decided that Strus had stepped
out of bounds, his 3 came off
the board while the game was
going, and a 56-54 game be-
came 65-52.
“The Boston Celtics did
what they came out here to do
in this series,” Butler said.
The Heat kept clawing back,
all the way to the end. They
just couldn’t catch Boston.
“It’s heartbreaking when it
ends like this,” Spoelstra said.
“You certainly have to credit
the Boston Celtics organiza-
tion and their team and their
coaching staff. ... We tip our
hats off to them. They are a
heck of a basketball team.”
And now, the Celtics are off
to the finals.
“Today was the biggest test,”
Brown said. “Not just of the
year, but of our careers.”
They passed.
The Finals matchup: Celtics vs. Warriors for NBA title
State Warriors, a series that be-
gins Thursday night, June 2, in
MIAMI — Somewhere,
San Francisco. The teams split
Gregg Popovich must be
their two regular-season meet-
pleased.
ings, each winning on the oth-
Ime Udoka and Steve Kerr
er’s home floor.
played for Popovich with
The Warriors have been
the San Antonio Spurs, both
waiting for an opponent since
served as assistant coaches un- May 26 after needing only five
der him, and neither makes
games to beat Dallas for the
any effort to hide the affinity
West title. The Celtics got there
they have for the NBA’s career the hard way, winning Game
victory leader.
7 in Miami on Sunday night,
And now, Udoka and Kerr
May 29, to capture the East.
are about to go head-to-head
“We stayed with it. We be-
— in the NBA Finals.
lieved in each other. We made a
The title matchup is set: It’ll commitment on the defensive
be Udoka and the Eastern Con- end,” said Celtics forward Al
ference champion Boston Celt- Horford, who, after 141 playoff
ics facing Kerr and the Western games, is headed to the NBA
Conference champion Golden Finals for the first time. “That
BY TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
was the biggest thing, defend-
ing.”
For the Celtics, it’s a chance
at an 18th NBA championship
— which would break the tie
with the Los Angeles Lakers
for the most in league history.
For the Warriors, it’s a chance
at a seventh crown — which
would break a tie with the
Chicago Bulls for third-most
in league history.
It’s also a rematch of the
1964 finals, when Bill Russell
and the Celtics topped the
Warriors in five games.
“I’ve said it many times:
You go to the finals, it’s al-
most a two-month journey
filled with stress and fatigue
and everything else,” said
Kerr, who gave his team Fri-
day and Saturday off before
bringing them back to work
Sunday. “So, if you can get a
little bit of a break, it’s very
meaningful. Hopefully, we
can get healthy and have a few
days of really good prep and
be ready to go on Thursday.”
Golden State won at Boston
111-107 on Dec. 17, behind 30
points from Stephen Curry. The
Celtics rolled on Golden State’s
home floor in the rematch on
March 16, winning 110-88 in
the game in which Curry in-
jured his foot — and that’s
where his regular season ended.
Curry was ready to go
for the playoffs. So were the
rest of the Warriors. They’re
12-4 in the playoffs, getting
through Denver, Memphis
and Dallas to get to the ti-
tle round.
“It all starts with Steph,”
Kerr said.
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